IGI Logo

Driven by soaring energy prices, Germany's annual inflation rate accelerated to 10 per cent in September, the highest level on record, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

Inflation has remained above 7 per cent for seven months now, it added on Thursday.

Energy prices in Europe's largest economy rose by 43.9 per cent year-on-year, with particularly sharp increases registered for household energy. Natural gas was 95 per cent more expensive than last year and prices for heating oil even more than doubled, Xinhua news agency reported.

The inflation rate reached an "all-time high since German reunification," Destatis President Georg Thiel said in a statement, adding that the "enormous price rises" for energy products remained the "main reason" for high inflation.

Food prices rose 18.7 per cent, more than overall prices, Destatis noted.

Excluding energy and food price rises, overall consumer price inflation in Germany would be 4.6 per cent.

To cushion the effects of high inflation, the German government has already presented relief packages totaling 95 billion euros ($92.9 billion), including one-off payments for consumers, a discount ticket for public transport and a fuel tax cut. Some measures already expired at the end of August.

The end of the fuel discount and the 9-euro public transport ticket "accelerated the price rises in September," Thiel said, stressing that these temporary relief measures had a "downward effect on overall inflation from June to August".

The German government is already working on a successor to the 9-euro ticket. It has also announced a "protective umbrella" of up to 200 billion euros to stabilise the economy and is preparing a cap on electricity and gas prices.

Inflation also continued to rise in the eurozone and peaked at 10 per cent in September, according to official figures. The European Central Bank (ECB) has already reacted by raising its key interest rate in two steps to 1.25 per cent. (1 euro = $0.97)